Four boys charged in sex video case

By Joe Beck

10:33 pm Monday, May 23, 2016

WOODSTOCK – Four Woodstock area boys received juvenile petitions Monday charging them with sex offenses that authorities have linked to an incident involving the video recording of sexual intercourse and transmission of the video by cell phone and text messaging.

The defendants are two 13-year-olds and two 14-year-olds who were gathered in a residence at the time that one of the 14-year-olds was having sex with a 12-year-old girl. He has been charged with rape.

The other defendants have each been charged with production of child pornography. One has also been charged with two counts of possession of child pornography.

A search warrant affidavit filed by Deputy Victor Green, a school resource officer with the Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office, states that he was asked on May 12 to begin investigating “students at Peter Muhlenberg Middle School having child pornography on their cellular devices.”

The search warrant was executed on a cell phone seized from one of the defendants.

Green wrote that he was present as “three juveniles were interviewed” about the boy and girl engaging in sexual intercourse.

“The three juvenile witnesses … being interviewed were present during the sexual act,” Green added.

The affidavit states that one of the defendants opened the bedroom door at the residence where the boy and girl were having sex.

“Two of the three juveniles being interviewed stated they began to record the sexual act” and used text messaging to send the video to one of the other four defendants.

The affidavit also states that the boy who received the video was seen in the same video removing blankets that had been covering the boy and girl while they were having sexual intercourse. The affidavit also identified him as the boy who opened the bedroom door.

Maj. Scott Proctor, of the Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office, said the incident happened on May 10, and the Sheriff’s Office began the investigation two days later.

Teens using cell phones to photograph or video record sexually explicit material for transmission to others “is not widespread but it does occur,” Proctor said.